In low power devices, such as battery powered devices and electronic devices designed to satisfy energy efficiency criteria, power consumption is tightly controlled. In electronic devices that include video amplifiers for driving televisions or computer monitors, the video amplifiers often consume power even when a monitor or television is not connected to the amplifier output. However, different manufacturers use different types of connections. Accordingly, when a load is connected, it may not be known ahead of time whether the load is AC-coupled or DC-coupled. If it were possible to detect the presence or absence of the load regardless of the type of load, the device could better save power.